Harbhajan Singh is Being Set Up

I wasnt at the ground or have not seen any video footage of what happened but from what I have read, I think Harbhajan Singh is being set up.

The brouhaha started with Andrew Symonds accusing Harbhajan of calling him a “monkey”. This has opened the wounds of the last Australian visit to India, where the crowd was accused of gesticulating like monkeys and targeting their actions at Symonds.

Harbhajan is not the coolest of customers on the field. He belongs to the Ganguly school of thought and not the Sachin school. And he has not minced words in the past when he expressed his want to take the fight to Australia in Australia.

However it is ridiculous to think that the match referee will have a hearing about this incident, and at least 5 people will testify against Bhajji.

Harbhajan Singh, who was bullied and sledged at during his tremendous blitzkrieg on Friday, was aghast that an official complaint had been lodged against him. Now, as many as five Australian players are even going to testify before the match referee. It won’t be easy to get out of this, even if Harbhajan is completely guiltless, as it is going to be one man’s word against five.

How does he prove that he hasn’t really said what the Australians are claiming he has? More pertinently, what happens to all the haranguing that they give to the opposition batsmen and bowlers? Will the match referees and ICC ever take note of their antics? Will Michael Clarke be slapped for dissent (and attempt to cheat) for not going away despite slicing the ball on Saturday?Â [link]

The team management along with the captain and Sachin will also be at the hearing, but they will be mere spectators. Only Sachin was on the ground with Bhajji when the alleged incident happened.

I feel that this is a sick ploy by Australia to teach Bhajji a lesson for him being so “bindaas” with the Aussies. And if Sreeshanth was here, he would have been accused of similar things.

Why is it that the greatest team of this generation is equally known for all the things that are wrong with cricket….sledging, bullying on the field etc. Their predecessors the West Indies of the 80’s and early 90’s were arguably more invincible that the Australians and no one ever had bad things to say about them.

Rest assured that Australian players won’t get any new contracts from ANY company that intends to sell products in India. And the reason won’t be patriotism or anything, but just plain business sense. After what happened on day 5 of the test, endorsements by Ponting and the likes will make no business sense. At least till the great Indian consumer/fan forgets and moves on. Moving on is what we’re best at. God knows to where, tho.

“The Australians have been sledging and abusing players with little censure for years, so there will be some sympathy towards Harbhajan for standing up to them. But in a world where racial friction can cause the death and destruction now being seen in Kenya, its use on a sports field is unacceptable, regardless of the provocation.

Almost as disagreeable is the indignation that seems to possess Indian cricket and its millions of supporters every time their team suffers a setback they don’t like – in this case Harbhajan’s ban and the loss of a Test riddled with umpiring errors against both sides.

The subtext, given the Indian board’s objection to Procter, as well as the umpires Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson, is that they are the victims of racism. Mind you, they could find a racist plot in a packet of jelly beans – and nearly did at Trent Bridge last year when someone sprinkled a few at the edge of the pitch.

Racism was also the accusation Pakistan used to whip up fervour against umpire Darrell Hair after the forfeited Oval Test 18 months ago, and it is one Asian countries seem to reach for too often when umpiring decisions or disciplinary matters go against them.

India have been here before, once threatening to cancel the final Test of their 2001-2 tour to South Africa. Then, the match referee was Mike Denness, a former England captain, who had imposed penalties on six Indian players for code-of-conduct breaches, including a one-Test ban on Virender Sehwag for excessive appealing.”

I do think Symonds is genuinely offended by what he sees as comments about his dark skin, due to his West Indian heritage, and possibly could have ignored the remark, but it is racism, and I guarantee if an Australian had caused a person with dark skin (like most Indians for example), a monkey, their reaction would be a lot worse than that from Symonds.

As for whining about Clarke not walking when obviously out, I do recall some Indian players doing the exact same thing in this test match.

Both teams need to pull their heads in and get on with cricket, but to assume it is all the Australians fault is to ignore India’s petulant behaviour, deliberate slow over rate and Harbhajan Singh’s conviction for calling Symonds a monkey. A lot of people say it is the Aussie’s word against the Indians, which is true, but to say Symonds, Ponting, Hayden, and particularly Gilchrist are all colluding to make up a complaint is ridiculous, while on the other hand it is easy to see someone accused not wanting to admit what he has done.

The offended tone exhibited by Harbhajan as though he is a saint who could never possibly do anything like this misses the point that in a tight, hard fought sporting contest, things do get said, even by saints, which they later regret. To assume these things should be ignored by others though is too much.

I think he did call Symonds a monkey, was caught out and probably regretted what he’d said instantly. Whenever someone carries on in the way the Indian team, management and sporting public has, it means players are vindicated in lying about what they have said, because they know they are so revered that they are able to get away with it.

I find in life, whenever someone uses the defence “How dare you………to question me?”
with an injured, offended tone, they have usually committed the offence which they are denying occurred.

The double-standard of ICC and it’s officials wrt to subcontinental and european teams in the recent past is for all to see. If you seriously want to underplay it, do it, but no on here is going to be fooled by it.

Regarding Harbhajan, if he said it, it’s not justifiable. But did he? And should everyone take Symond’s word on it? It’s all a bit too suspicious to raise questions.

> deliberate slow over rate

Red herring. If you observe, on day 2/3 Australia were bowling at 12 overs an hour. Stop raising bogeys.

> [Racism] is [what] Asian countries seem to reach for too often when umpiring decisions or disciplinary matters go against them.

And, do you ever wonder why these things seems to go consistently against subcontinental teams? Wonder how Lee was never pulled up for suspicious action. Wonder how excessive appealing charge never goes against the European teams (even in this test? why go back further). Wonder how White players (McGrath, Nel and co) never get pulled up umpires? Wonder how for same offenses in same matches, the white players get away with lesser punishments? If you don’t then don’t come here and preach us. We’ve seriously had enough of this selective amnesia.